Sacred Ground

Well everyone, it's Friday again.  It seems as though I forget about my this blog until Friday and then I remember that I want to put up some links.  However, today I probably should not be taking time out of the day to right a blog post but I have had an incredibly productive 10 days (more on that in a moment) and I really just want to spend a few minutes trying to put some thoughts down in cyber space to share with you all today.

Like I mentioned, I have essentially been on a 10 day school/work week.  Fall break was last Monday and Tuesday (10th and 11th) and thus I had a short week last week.  But as fate would have it I was asked to teach over the weekend, essentially eliminating my "weekend."  Thus I have been on campus from about 9-5 every day since last Wednesday.  Now, don't let that fool you, being a graduate student is also very flexible and I have had my fair share of down time.  But still, 10 straight days of being in the lab and constantly working on multiple projects has been yearning for a break.

Dr. Garnet E. Peck, Professor Emeritus
Purdue University, IPPH

With that said, I want to take a minute and discuss my experience at the 9th Annual Peck Symposium.  The Peck Symposium is hosted by the IPPH Department here at Purdue to honor Dr. Garnet E. Peck for his contributions not only to Purdue but to the world of pharmaceutics.  Dr. Peck is the lab instructor for the class I teach (I mainly teach coating, that's important for this next part).  Now I understood that Dr. Peck has had quite the impact on pharmaceuticals working with everything from tableting, to encapsulation, to coating.  But I did not know that he was essentially the pioneer of latex-based coatings that have been used in pharmaceuticals for thirty years.  So when I am teaching the coating lab and Dr. Peck walks into to inspect our work and says, "Those tablets look good!" that is more than just a professor telling you that you're doing it right.  To me, that is like Derek Jeter telling me I am a good hitter!  It is absolutely an honor to be working with someone of the caliber of Dr. Peck.  So yesterday was an eye opening day for me and my teaching experience.  But there is more...

The symposium featured speakers from across the country as well as a couple Purdue professors (including my own major prof. Dr. Taylor).  These speakers are from some of the top Universities/companies for both Pharmaceutical Sciences and research in general, including; University of Kentucky, University of Wisconsin, Johnson and Johnson, University of Connecticut, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of South Florida.  And I understand that when you are invited to speak at a conference that you humbly talk about how honored you are to speak at the event.  But, on multiple occasions the speakers kept referring to Purdue as "sacred ground" in the field of solid state chemistry (SSC).  I know that Purdue has been a leader in the SSC for pharmaceuticals but it astonished me that these people from across the country saw this opportunity to speak at Purdue as one of their most honored experiences.  I may take being at Purdue for granted some days but today I truly feel blessed to be at Purdue University studying at the "sacred ground!"

All in all, it was an inspiring day for myself and the rest of the grad students who attended the symposium.  Next year I will have a poster with some of my work presented at the symposium as a warm-up to the AAPS National Convention.  

Enough of me blabbering on.  I have only a couple fragments for you all this week...

-Two words, Quantum Levitation.  Check out a quick link here, but the video is freaking catnip for science nerds!!!

-I found this site on fluid dynamics and it is a great way to spend 5-500 minutes watching awesome physics videos of fluids.  I particularly like the bouncing water video (scroll down a little and you'll find it).

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Speed of Sound

Do you ever feel like your life is moving at the speed of sound?  Well, the last two weeks or so has been just that for me.  My summer was definitely fun but also took patient.  Now, everything seems to be happening at once.  This is not a bad thing because I function at my best when my plate is full!  Call me crazy but seeing my calendar look like two rainbows got busy on top of it just adds to whatever motivation I have at that time.

With that said, here a few new items of mine for you to ponder upon…

The NQAD instrument

Last week was culmination of a few weeks working with a Sales Rep for a new instrument in our lab.  The NQAD for HPLC (Nano Quantity Analyte Detector for High Performance Liquid Chromatography) will hopefully allow our lab group to measure micro and nano quanitities within our projects.  Well, I arranged for the rep to come give a presentation and assist with the installation of this new instrument.  The overall installation process was almost a complete failure. The hardware works fine, but the software needed to actually gather data has been a real pain in my butt to say the least.  It has been a week since the rep was here and it is still a work in progress.  But, I learned a lot about research through the process.  I really appreciated that the sales rep, who is an analytical chemist not an actual sales person, took the time to know me and offer advice for a young graduate student.  I learned that as long as you have a passion for what you are doing, the rest will fall into place regardless of where you think it may or may not be going.  Not to mention I got a free lunch out of it (thanks again)!

Last Monday marked the beginning of yet another school year here at Purdue University.  Here are my observations.  The freshman look so young that I keep thinking there might be a middle school field trip on campus.  Parking on campus remains to be a complete disaster.  And I find myself laughing at people as they walk around campus (chasing busses, being in the wrong classroom, yelling at Robbie Hummel, etc).  Even though those things seem to be all negative, I really do enjoy that everyone is back on campus because of the closeness of Purdue (see this link if you need to know what I am talking about). 

Since the school year has started that means call-outs and club meetings have begun again.  I am a part of the student chapter of AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) here at Purdue.  This year I have been “elected” as the President Elect.  Essentially we have a President, Vice President, and President Elect and each year the Vice moves up to President, and the Elect moves up to Vice.  I believe that setup is used for consistency within the club.  Anyway, my one outlined role in the club right now is to make sure the bulletin board is up to date and looks good.  And I thought I had finished with bulletin boards after my Res Life days!?

Counter as of Friday (8/26/11)

Lastly, the Purdue starting QB, Rob Henry, tore his ACL at practice this week.  I just want it to be known that I have not torn my ACL yet but I will be taking extra precautions as I train for the Tough Mudder Competition schedule for November.  That being said, anyone associated with Purdue should immediately begin wearing knee braces on both legs to be safe!